Air Travel

I used to travel a lot. I'd see fellow travelers complain about the smallest things, these are the people who think they're an expert on how to run the logistical nightmare that is an airline. And if they were in charge apparently no one would ever be late, you'd never have to wait in line and they would still be serving full meals on airlines. I'm not one of these people.
But now I have to complain about the incompetence. I had an 8am flight to IAD, a 90 minute layover, then a flight to ALB. My 8am was listed as late, so I called customer service who told me that the ALB flight was also delayed (until 6pm) so I'd be fine. I questioned why until 6pm? (it was still 8:30 in the morning)...no reason known. Okay. the 9am and the 10am to IAD take off on time. Then I get on my flight....the 8am..... at 10:15 to IAD. When I get there I look for the screens that tell you where gates are/ departures. I look for a gate agent, nothing. I walk 10 gates down before I see an airline employee, who tells me the flight is delayed and is taking off at 1:55. At this point a man behind me asks if that is the ALB flight, because the screens says it took off at 1:05. (It's about 1:10 now). So, the 12:30 flight left at 1:05 or will be leaving at 1:55 or 6pm. We take a train to another terminal, during the ride I use my cell to call United Customer Service, who assures me the flight is delayed until 1:55pm. Wrong. It left at 1:05pm. I go to the customer service counter....all flights to ALB today and tomorrow are sold out. The waitlist is too full to add me to it for the next 2 flights and it "honestly doesn't look good at all." Okay. What about Burlington, can you get me to Burlington? Yes. A 5pm flight. Gets into Burlington at 6:30. Great! I take a bus to go to the other terminal. I call Robbin. He's going to take Dave, Chad & Lauren to dinner in Burlington and we'll all meet there.
Except at that gate, the agent says at 4:30 that the Burlington flight is showing 30 minutes late, but it is coming from Albany and it hasn't left yet. So.....it won't be here until 6 probably, I ask the agent. He tells me that probably but that the screen says only 30 minutes late.
Around 5:15 a fellow customer says very loudly in the gate area....the Burlington flight changed gates. About 15 of us look to the agent who says that he made that announcement half an hour ago. The 15 of us disagree. We get on another bus to go to that terminal. It's boarding. Then, as I am giving the gate agent my ticket there is a call from the plane. The electrical system isn't working right, everyone off the plane. Then at 6pm the agent announces that the plane came back from maintenance but the pilot still found a problem, he would make another announcement in 30 minutes. My cell phone has died. I did not bring a charger because Robbin and I have the same phone and he had his. So, I go to the pay phones to call Robbin and during this 15 minutes, my flight is canceled. I wait in line for an hour minutes. I'm third in line. The supervisor take the first three people in line to another counter. The people in front of me are 1) a family who got to the airport late and missed their flight and 2) a man who wants to upgrade his seat but doesn't understand the FF point program. I stop keeping track of time, but I can see that the other line is now almost empty. They then put me in a cab to Reagan for a 9pm flight to ALB. In first class. Which was a nice touch but not enough for my day. My day that I will never get back. Oh, and Robbin and my friends were in Burlington, about 4 hours away from Albany. I rented a car and got to Chad's house around 1 Saturday morning.
Argh.